The Bill amending the Constitution to allow Ireland to ratify the Fiscal Compact is now available on the Oireachtas Website (PDF). The bill proposes inserting a new sub-section 10 to Article 29 which deals with foreign affairs. The new section will read as follows: 10° The State may ratify the Treaty on Stability, Coordination andGovernance in the Economic and Monetary Union done at Brussels on the 2nd day of March 2012. No provision of this Constitution invalidates laws enacted, acts done...
Portugal today became the first state to approve the Fiscal Compact. 25 of the 27 EU Member states signed up to the tightened budget rules. The United Kingdom and the Czech Republic are the only two not to sign up. It is interesting that Portugal were first to approve the treaty as they were the third country to get a bailout of the EU/ECB/IMF after Ireland and Greece. The Portuguese Government were supported by the opposition Socialists in passing the pact which was approved...
With a lot of focus on the banks, the debt crisis and the upcoming Treaty Referendum, once again the issue of Children’s right gets pushed back. We are now awaiting the third version of the proposed wording of the Constitutional Referendum and that hasn’t emerged yet. Meanwhile many Children aren’t being taken into account as they have no rights in relation to The Family as defined by the Constitution. With children in care from married families who cannot be...
There has been some interesting polls done in Germany in the last few days. With important state elections coming up in Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia and the Federal Elections next year. The first poll released on the 8th April by TNS Emnid show the following: CDU/CSU 36% SPD 26% Green 13% FDP 4% Die Linke 7% Pirate 10% Others 4% The second poll is by Forsa for RTL and had the following CDU/CSU 36% SPD 24% Green 11% FDP 5%...
The Race for the Republican Presidential Nomination just became easier as Rick Santorum has pulled out of the race this evening. Santorum who was trailing Mitt Romney in the Delegate race for the nomination phoned Romney before making the announcement. “We made a decision over the weekend, that while this presidential race for us is over, for me, and we will suspend our campaign today, we are not done fighting,” After the announcement Mitt Romney issued a statement “Senator...
With so much focus on the US Republican Race we seem to not notice the election over on the mainland that will have more effect on us then the result of that election. I am of course talking about the French Presidential Election. The first round of voting is on April 22nd. The current President, Nicolas Sarkozy, faces 9 opponents in his hope of re-election. Those running for the Presidency are: Nicolas Sarkozy (Union for a Popular Movement UMP) Francois Hollande...
There has been many calls over the last number of months for US Republican Presidential hopefuls to drop out of the race for the Nomination. With Mitt Romney reaching half the number of delegates required for the nomination, pressure on Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul to pull out of the race is growing. Last night Mitt Romney won the primaries in Maryland, Wisconsin and Washington DC. Now Romney has carried 18 states compared to Santorum’s 11 and...
I’m finally back in Cork after last weekend’s Fine Gael Ard Fheis in the Convention Centre in Dublin. It was an interesting Ard Fheis with plenty to talk about and to plan for. The highlight of course was of course Enda Kenny’s speech on Saturday night. His speech for me summed up the change that we have seen in Enda Kenny since the attempted heave in 2010. It was measured and it contained positives and negatives. I for one...
As part if the 76th Fine Gael Ard Fheis, Young Fine Gael will be hosting a session on Saturday afternoon on the topic of Human Rights. The session will discuss Human Rights at home and abroad. The Session will include discussion on how human rights should become central to our society and political system, the media treatment of human rights, children’s rights and the Children’s Referendum, and advocacy for people with disability. Speaking about the Session, Young Fine Gael...
The date has been set for the Fiscal Treaty Referendum and it will take place on Thursday May 31st. Polls will be open from 7am until 10pm. The date was announced by An Táiniste Eamonn Gilmore in the Dáil this afternoon following a Cabinet Meeting this morning when the date was agreed upon. There will be much disappointment that the vote will be held on a Thursday considering that Fine Gael and Labour regularly lambasted past Governments for holding...
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